League of Legends 4.4 notes released, details Kassadin's rework and more champion changes

Patch 4.4 hits League of Legends in two days, and patch notes are now available for all Summoners to peruse and freak out over. Yes, Kassadin is getting his rework tomorrow, while Heimerdinger gets his visual update. Hey, maybe Kass will receive that much-needed visual update someday, too.

Beyond those two major champion changes, Varus gets his "Arctic Ops" skin with the patch, Thresh is hit with another (yet significant) nerf, thanks to the shortened range at which he may collect loose souls. This means grabbing souls could potentially be more dangerous for the player.

Thresh

Passive - Damnation

8 seconds is really all the time a soul needs before it realizes it can escape from Thresh. The shorter window to pick up souls means Thresh will have to take more risks as he tries to collect distant souls.

Kog'Maw, by contrast, got a pretty decent buff, where his Q is now a stronger poke, no longer requiring a target to activate; its effects have also been improved. Aside from Caustic Spittle becoming a skill shot, his W no longer requires mana.

W - Bio-Arcane Barrage

New Mana Cost 50⇒Now has no mana cost

R - Living Artillery

BUG FIXFixed tooltip to reflect that only the base damage is amplified versus champions

But what about those Kassadin and Heimerdinger changes? Yes, those might be what the players are really looking forward to. Riot reaffirmed Kass' role "as an anti-magic assassin with unrivaled mobility," but noted how overpowered he was before. With these big changes, Kassadin should be easier to counter even after snowballing.

That Kass silence really was an irritant. This is a perfect change, in my opinion. Kog also seems more playable now. The best part though is Swain remaining untouched; he shall forever remain a hidden gem of utter destruction :>

This Kassadin rework looks really great. I love mana-scaling abilities, and I love champions who benefit from Tear of the Goddess. Also, the increased attack range and auto-attack reset seem really cool. All in all, I think I will like Kassadin even more than before.

I wonder if Kass will even be played after this, LB may end up taking his spot instead. The silence was important because it allowed him to pin a target for a kill, it disabled the ability for a good amount of champions who would actually live through a R>Q>E to respond in any decent way. An interrupt doesn't really do that. Whereas LB can still lock somebody. He needed a nerf to be sure, but I'm a little worried this could simply be his death.

Heavy Elise nerfs are good, she was basically 100% pick/ban so this may knock her off that without also completely decimating her usefulness. Same goes for Sivir, though I think those nerfs won't matter as much since none of them touched her Ultimate.

Kog's changes are cool, but I don't think we'll see him picked. He dropped off so hard, even though he has tank-shredding abilities, because he has no escapes. With the rise of champions like Shyvana and Renekton to common play, you cannot bring a Kog, there is not enough peel in the world to make that a smart choice.

Vi nerfs...probably will do nothing, she's already kind of shifted out of the limelight on her own, and her main boon wasn't damage, it's the incredible cc she has for ganks, setting up lanes to win. Though currently lane picks tend to be either too slippery or too tanky for her to lock them down, which is probably why she shifted out a bit.

Lich nerf will be kind of weird, rather surprised that's the mage item getting hit, and not Athene's or Rabadon's, since 99% of mids start with those items.

If Riot wanted to put early aggression back in, they probably should have lowered first trinket cooldowns, and not raised them. We've been seeing delayed invades more commonly specifically because teams are waiting out the cooldowns. It's a risk to invade, and much of early invasions are made to plant vision so you can spy the enemy jungler. Not really sure how this will be reacted to, maybe pro teams will buy real wards at the start and not bother depending on their trinkets? Or will we just see completely passive level 1's again? Time will tell I guess.

Lich nerf will be kind of weird, rather surprised that's the mage item getting hit, and not Athene's or Rabadon's, since 99% of mids start with those items.

Well there's nothing wrong with those items, whereas Lich Bane giving champions like Ziggs and Lulu the chance to have as much tower pushing ability as ADC's while also having their ridiculous poke and so on is problematic. Late game a 600 AP Ziggs would be hitting the tower for 500 damage every 2 seconds. It's a nerf targeted at those two champions primarily, indicated by the fact other champions that often use Lich Bane (TF, Fizz, Diana, Ezreal) were slightly buffed to compensate for the item change. So it's pretty much getting hit just because it's associated with Ziggs and Lulu.

Although I can see why changes to Athene's and Rabadon's (much more likely the former if this happens) may happen due to the fact they are guaranteed buys on almost every mid laner and Riot might want to change that, I think they actually impose no problems other than being "boring" must-buy items.

Lich nerf will be kind of weird, rather surprised that's the mage item getting hit, and not Athene's or Rabadon's, since 99% of mids start with those items.

Well there's nothing wrong with those items, whereas Lich Bane giving champions like Ziggs and Lulu the chance to have as much tower pushing ability as ADC's while also having their ridiculous poke and so on is problematic. Late game a 600 AP Ziggs would be hitting the tower for 500 damage every 2 seconds. It's a nerf targeted at those two champions primarily, indicated by the fact other champions that often use Lich Bane (TF, Fizz, Diana, Ezreal) were slightly buffed to compensate for the item change. So it's pretty much getting hit just because it's associated with Ziggs and Lulu.

Although I can see why changes to Athene's and Rabadon's (much more likely the former if this happens) may happen due to the fact they are guaranteed buys on almost every mid laner and Riot might want to change that, I think they actually impose no problems other than being "boring" must-buy items.

Athene's has been choking out Morello's and AA for a pretty long time, it's very dominant. Either Riot needs to nerf it, or they need to make the other regen items mages have available actually viable in comparison. I love the item, but it's a bit of a problem.

I love how they didn't just completely Nerf kassadin and end it there. It shows real dedication to the community and the game. Doing the other would just show laziness. They put quite a bit of work into this patch and I enjoy it, they nerfed but also buffed quite a bit.